Purpose: Obesity is a well-known of risk factor for atherosclerosis and the amount of visceral adipose tissue is considered as an independent predictor of coronary artery disease (CAD). An aim of the study was to investigate the distribution of intrathoracic adipose tissue in morbidly obese patients.

Material and methods: Fifty-one patients with morbid obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2) and thirty controls were scanned in a coronary calcium scoring protocol. Control group consisted of patients scanned due to a clinical suspicion of CAD, who did not fulfill obesity criteria. The amount of adipose tissue was measured as epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) thickness, pericoronary fat (PCF) thickness, total intra-pericardial fat (IPF) volume, and total intrathoracic fat (ITF) volume.

Conlcusions: Increased chest soft tissue thickness but not the increased intrathoracic adipose tissue volume was associated with morbid obesity. Since the quantity of the pericardiac fat is not directly related to the obesity, its accumulation may be related to a mechanism different than that of subcutaneous adipose tissue growth.